These maps dramatically illustrate how rising sea levels completely altered the shape of Panama’s coastline, creating islands and submerging large areas of land.
Through their foraging behavior across the diverse topography of the African savanna, megaherbivores may be unknowingly influencing the growth and survival of vegetation on valleys and plateaus, while preserving steep slopes as habitat refugia.
Reshaping her interest in science into a career in art, Amy Koehler does what she loves best in the Bat Lab
Male Wrinkle-faced bats lower a flap of skin resembling a face mask when they are ready to mate according to a rare sighting of a lek of bats in Costa Rica.
Male Fringe-Lipped bats smear a sticky, odorous substance on their forearms. When this was discovered, researchers guessed that it might play a role in mating. Post-doctoral fellow Mariana Muñoz-Romo has confirmed that the presence and size of the forearm "crust" is, indeed correlated with other reproductive traits.
The seminar series via Zoom titled How did I get here? Scientific Stories is carried out thanks to the support of the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB). For the 6th seminar on January 2021, Smithsonian invited Ricardo Moreno, Director of the Yaguará Panama Foundation, STRI Associate Researcher and National Geographic Emerging Explorer with the talk entitled, Advances in scientific research and jaguar conservation in Panama.
The strong relationship formed between two female adult vampire bats may have motivated one of the bats to adopt the other’s baby.
About 66 million years ago, a huge asteroid crashed into what is now the Yucatan, plunging the Earth into darkness. The impact transformed tropical rainforests, giving rise to the reign of flowers.
At the Smithsonian’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama, marine biologist Rachel Collin runs an educational program that recruits international experts to teach and create videos about how to collect, preserve and observe marine invertebrates, passing down their very specific knowledge to aspiring taxonomists.
“Her unification of developmental plasticity and genetics is a huge advance in our understanding of evolution. Her decades-long work with tropical social wasps focusing on careful field observation is testimony to what a careful observer of natural history can contribute to evolutionary biology.”-the Linnean Society
